SAN JOSE, Calif. — A two-hour plane ride is a pretty good haul for the New York Rangers. For the Vancouver Canucks, it’s called the third-shortest flight from home in their National Hockey League schedule.

If new coach John Tortorella needed proof he’s not in Kansas, uh, Manhattan, anymore, it came Tuesday when the Canucks travelled here to play the Sharks after beating the Phoenix Coyotes 6-1 Monday night in Vancouver.

“The hardest part about the Rangers’ situation is places were too close — just the logistics of it all,” Tortorella, fired in New York after last season, said before the Canucks’ pre-season game. “Do you stay in Jersey? Do you take the train? When’s the traffic? Same thing with (Long) Island: Do you go the morning of the game? Philly, train, flight?”

Yes, the horror of it all.

Ranger players took limousines to road games in New Jersey and had to spend the afternoon at a hotel in Newark. Newark! That’s inhuman.

“I wouldn’t call them problems,” Tortorella said. “I would just call them logistics. (Compared to Vancouver), it’s night and day as far as travel.

“Just having to clear customs, going to different parts of terminals. The amount of days that (Canuck players) are not in their own bed, yeah, it’s tough. I’m very cognizant of that. I don’t look for practice time, I look for time off and we’re going to try to get them as much time off as we possibly can.”

BACK-TO-BACK BREAKING: In this compressed Olympics-year schedule, the Canucks will play back-to-back 17 times. Vancouver averaged 11 back-to-backs the last 15 seasons.

No wonder Tortorella was keen to see how his team fared playing a second consecutive night during the pre-season. Fifteen of 18 Canuck skaters in San Jose played Monday against Phoenix.

“I’m anxious to see how guys react to a back-to-back in an exhibition,” he said. “Let’s be honest about it, sometimes it’s tough to get them to play (hard) one game, some of these guys. You’ve got to pick your battles. But I’m honest about that and I’m not going to be whipping people right now.”

KASS OR FAIL: The Canucks will, however, be whipping Zack Kassian in the gym during the winger’s suspension through the first five games of the regular season.

“This hurts him because of not being able to play the games,” Tortorella said, refusing to comment on the severity of Kassian’s suspension for swinging his stick into the face of Oiler Sam Gagner and making an oral surgeon in Edmonton even wealthier.

“I think his conditioning is OK. I still want to see him make more of a difference in all areas. It’s not that he’s been bad. I just want to see him as a young guy — and he’s still a young kid — take the next step. I think that will happen.

“It gives us a chance to really nail him as far as conditioning. That’s one plus. And he will get nailed because I think that will help his game. He’s an important guy, as such a young kid that can do a lot of things. But he needs to take control of it a little bit himself.”

Asked why he thinks Kassian might be a partner for Daniel and Henrik Sedin, the Canuck boss admitted he has no idea if the 22-year-old can play on the top line.

“I’m trying him there,” Tortorella said. “I can see he has some skill, see he has some size. He can skate well. There is willingness in his game. There are a lot of things there. But it’s a matter of consistency. It’s a matter of practice habits. It’s a matter of conditioning. It’s all those things, the little things that he has to take care of.”

LINEUP: Workhorse defencemen Kevin Bieksa and Jason Garrison came out of the Canuck lineup, replaced by Dan Hamhuis and rookie Frankie Corrado. The only change at forward had Zach Hamill replace Chris Higgins.

Hamhuis was held out of Monday’s game because of soreness.

“Just sore muscles,” Hamhuis said Tuesday. “It was one of those things where we thought we’d take a day or two to make sure I’m back to 100 per cent as opposed to trying to push through something and making it worse.”

The Canucks, who did San Jose as a day trip, planned to take Wednesday off before finishing their pre-season Thursday at home against the Alain Vigneault-coached New York Rangers. Vancouver opens its regular season one week later back in San Jose.

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